On August 5, 1965, in Trung Luong commune, Dinh Hoa district, Bac Thai province (now Binh Yen commune, Thai Nguyen province), the 299th Engineering and Architecture Regiment held its first military-political conference, which was also the time to mark the birth of the Regiment in the resistance war against the US to save the country. Since then, the Regiment was named "Tan Trao Regiment", August 5 became the Regiment's glorious traditional day.

Engineer Brigade 299 educates new soldiers about unit traditions. Photo: DUC ANH

Right from the first years of its establishment, the Regiment stabilized its force organization and trained the basic contents of its profession. In October 1965, the Regiment undertook the construction of Project Area B (the high-level command headquarters of the Party and State). This was the largest project in our country at that time, built underground in the rocky mountains, with a large span, capable of withstanding the great destructive power of bombs and chemical weapons, and the highest requirement was to keep it absolutely secret. The task was difficult, but after only 3 months, the Regiment completed the opening of 15km of public service roads, 20 days ahead of schedule.

In 1973, in order to meet the mission requirements, the Regiment was strengthened in terms of force and equipment, becoming the Mixed Engineer Brigade under the 1st Corps. During the 1975 Spring General Offensive and Uprising, together with units throughout the Corps, officers and soldiers of the 299th Engineer Brigade rapidly marched over 1,700km with a large amount of technical equipment. The Brigade was assigned the task of building the Corps command post throughout the campaign, ensuring the mobility of the entire Corps' technical equipment to the assembly position, ensuring the deep thrust of the 320B Division to capture the Saigon puppet General Staff, contributing to the Corps maintaining the offensive position, creating favorable opportunities with the five wings to fight the strategic decisive battle to liberate the South and unify the country.

Engineer Brigade 299 organizes construction to ensure safety. Photo: DUC ANH

In the current period, the Brigade focuses on improving the quality of training, combat readiness, building military works, detecting and handling bombs, mines, explosives, participating in overcoming the consequences of natural disasters, and search and rescue. On November 22, 2023, the Minister of National Defense signed Decision No. 6037/QD-BQP, transferring the Brigade's status to the 12th Army Corps. Faced with increasingly high mission requirements, the officers and soldiers of the Brigade are always united, unified, overcoming all difficulties; promoting the results and achievements in training, combat readiness, building combat works and performing assigned tasks.

With 60 years of construction, fighting and growth, the Brigade has been honored to be awarded the title of Hero of the People's Armed Forces twice along with many other noble awards. Promoting the achievements, the officers and soldiers of the entire Brigade always uphold the spirit of solidarity, proactive creativity, strive to study, cultivate and train; constantly improve their qualifications in all aspects, build a strong and comprehensive Brigade that is "exemplary and typical". The glorious tradition of the 299th Engineer Brigade - the heroic Tan Trao Engineer Corps is a solid foundation for each officer and soldier to enthusiastically strive to rise up and compete to achieve many new achievements.

Colonel DINH TUAN ANH, Brigade Commander of Engineer Brigade 299

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    Source: https://www.qdnd.vn/quoc-phong-an-ninh/xay-dung-quan-doi/xay-dung-don-vi-cong-binh-chinh-quy-hien-dai-839841